Improvement in adjustable draft-bars for sleighs



y W. BURKE.

Adjustable Draft-Bar for fileighs,

No. 203,703. Patented May 14, 1878.

lllllIllL i N. PETERSA PHOTO-LITHDGRAPMEH. WASHINGTON O C UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM BURKE, OF SYRACUSE, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN ADJUSTABLE DRAFT-BARS FOR SLEIGl -IS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 203,703, dated May 14, 1878; application filed April 1, 1878.

Draft-Bars for Sleighs, of which the followin g, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to devices for adjusting the tongue or thill in its position on a sleigh or cutter relative to the track of the runner, so as to allow the horse to always travel in the beaten track without straining the sleigh.

The object of the invention is to accomplish the aforesaid adjustment by means which shall be simple and comparatively inexpensive in construction, strong, durable, and safe in operation, and readily applied to a sleigh or cutter; and it consists in the combination and arrangement of a stationary bar extended across the front of the sleigh or cutter, and rigidly attached thereto, and a draft-bar applied directly and loosely thereto, and maintained thereon by clips or bands loosely embracing the stationary bar, and provided with set-screws for confining the draftbar in the desired position; all constructed and arranged'to operate substantially in the manner hereinafter fully described.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a side view of a sleigh provided with my improvements; Fig. 2, a top view of same; Fig. 3, an enlarged front view of the invention; Fig. 4, an inverted plan view of same, and Fig. 5 an enlarged transverse section on line as as in Fig. 3.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

c is -a bar rigidly secured across the front of the sleigh or cutter. e represents the adjustable draft-bar, or so-called shifting bar,

for easy manipulation, and working in a.

threaded eye in the straps d. Their inner end is fitted to engage countersinks or recesses in the bar a, in such relative positions as to admit of confining the shifting bar c either in the position shown by full lines in Figs. 3 and 4. of the drawing, and thus bring the horse in line with the center of the sleigh, or in that indicated by dotted lines in the same figures, for the purpose of allowing the horse to travel in the track of the sleigh. The former position is always desirable so long as the road is sufficiently smooth to admit of it. The latter position is required in traveling roads worked into ruts, as is generally the case with country roads during sleighing-time.

It is obvious that the shifting bar can be arranged either ontop, bottom, or side of the stationary bar a, and that the position of the set-screw admits of like variations.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination and arrangement of the cross-bar a, rigidly attached to the sleigh, the draft-bar, e contiguous thereto, the clips 01, at tached to the latter, and loosely embracing the former, and provided with set-screws 8, adapted to engage countersinks in the bar a, all constructed and arranged substantially in the manner described and shown.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 27th day of March, 1878.

WILLIAM BURKE.

Witnesses:

I. O. LAASS, H. HILL. 

